The Wine Makers on Radio Misfits

This week we sat down with Robyn Sebastiani from SVVGA, Tim Zahner from the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau and Mark Bodenhammer from the Chamber of Commerce to lay out the upcoming Vintage Festival.

The Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival is California’s oldest wine festival, with roots dating back to 1897 in Sonoma, the birthplace of California winemaking.

The festival began when local playwright and Sonoma Union High School principal Ben Weed staged a theatrical pageant called The Vintage Festival at the Gundlach family’s Rhinefarm in 1897. The play featured Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, resolving local problems in a festive, Bacchanalian celebration. The 1897 event was deemed “a great success” by the local press. In 1898, Weed returned with another Bacchus-themed drama, set in a natural amphitheater, where Bacchus and his followers helped a young man win a romantic contest.

For decades, Sonoma residents celebrated the grape harvest with the Vintage Festival, even during Prohibition (1920–1933), when alcohol was banned. According to a 1927 newspaper account, the festival continued with “dancing, games and feasting” using grape juice.

The Great Depression and World War II caused the festival to lapse for several years. The festival was revived in 1947 with a full-scale community celebration: costumed participants, a parade of horse-drawn wagons, and live music from Mexican bands. This marked the start of the modern tradition, organized by local residents, and supported by philanthropic groups.

Today, the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival is held each September in the historic Sonoma Plaza—the largest town square in California and the site of the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. It blends a free daytime street festival with wine tastings, artisan markets, live music, the sausage toss, and the signature Grape Stomp competition, alongside ticketed harvest dinners and the Grand Tasting at the Sonoma Barracks.

The festival is both a celebration of Sonoma’s winemaking heritage and a living link to its agricultural and community traditions, drawing generations of Californians to honor the region’s “grape bounty, community spirit, and rich history.” {ep 429]

We hope you can come join in the festivities.

www.sonomavalleywine.com

www.sonomavalley.com

www.sonomachamber.org

www.thewinemakerspodcast.com

This week, Jan Krupp from Krupp Brothers Winery joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Forging Eden, out Oct. 27. The book offers a front-row seat to the evolution of Napa Valley over the past 4 decades and Jan’s thoughts on where the region, and the wine industry as a whole, are headed next. It also tells the remarkable story of how he walked away from a successful medical career to chase an “impossible” dream: turning 750 acres of volcanic rock and barren mountainside into Stagecoach Vineyard.

Experts told him the land would never produce world-class grapes. They were wrong. Stagecoach became one of Napa’s most influential vineyards, supplying fruit to Caymus, Duckhorn, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Spottswoode, Pahlmeyer, Hall, and many others, while Jan and his brother also built Krupp Brothers Winery. Forging Eden is the story of the enormous risks, crazy engineering challenges, and sheer persistence it took to build a vineyard that plenty of people believed could never survive. [Ep 428]

kruppbrothers.com

This week, we’re joined by “Rainbow Valentine” and her father, “Walter Lemur,” of the wildly popular podcast Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter. Over the span of 10 episodes, Rainbow’s podcast tells the story of growing up in the drug-smuggling hippie counterculture of 1970s and ’80s Marin County.

Walter was a particularly successful smuggler, and like many of his counterparts, he needed ways to launder all those ill-gotten gains. Some people bought vintage cars, art and antique jewelry, or made cash deals that skirted tax and banking laws. Walter did some of that, but early in his smuggling career he discovered a much more enjoyable way to invest his cash: fine wine.

Shockingly, Sam grew up with Rainbow, only he knew her as Thesaly…

Once he connected all the dots, we invited Thesaly and her dad to come on the show and tell some of his stories of wine “collecting.” We get into how “Walter” got into the business in the first place, some of the many dangers and complications along the way, and plenty of other meandering rambles. Most importantly, we dig into the wines he was investing in and what the world of fine wine was like in that heady era.

“Rainbow” and “Walter” also brought a surprising treat: the last of six magnums Walter bought of 1952 Krug Champagne, supposedly from Rémi Krug’s personal cellar.

The wine, like the stories, defied all logic and took us on a journey we could not possibly have predicted.

Buckle up, open one up, roll one up and get ready for one of the wildest episodes of The Wine Makers Podcast yet! [Ep 427]

Listen to Disorganized Crime and other great Rainbow Valentine podcasts here -> https://rainbowvalentine.com/ (we highly recommend Psychadelic Women)

Listen to the specific episode about wine buying and other cash cleaning tactics here -> https://bit.ly/4crw8HU

Follow Rainbow/Thesaly on Instagram-

@rainbowvalentinelemur @theukulady

This week we talked about nothing… And everything. Harvest is upon us, so we are a bit tired, and punchy, which is evident in our dialogue. One of our favorite wine club members and his wife joined the chaos.

RIP Dolly Parton & Tim Curry

Follow @trickingoffainteasy

thewinemakerspodcast.com

Monica Riebli has spent her career working in fundraising for nonprofits and through the years has popped a lot of corks of Champagne celebrating the success of those nonprofits. Monica believes that sparkling wine should be thought of as an everyday beverage, not just for special occasions. So she decided to do something about that by starting a Champagne Club. It might sound like a good excuse to travel to France and meet some of the 15,000 growers/producers, and find some of those that have the same passion and excitement that she has for Champagne and bring those wines to the states. For the launch of Champagne Cowgirl, Monica brought two producers to meet some of her members and we are lucky enough to have them on the podcast this week. [Ep 425]

Clara Lete – Champagne A.Lété

@champagnealete

Tom Lempereur Champagne Harlin Père et Fils

@champagneharlin

champagnecowgirl.com

@ChampsCowgirl